WHO: Three million missTB diagnosis

he World Health Organisation (WHO) has said about three million people do not recieve (TB) diagnosis yearly.

According to a report by the body, about three quarters of the cases are in 12 countries. The report was released by the WHO in London and Geneva.

About 75 per cent of the estimated 2.9 million missed cases, i.e people who were either not diagnosed or diagnosed but not reported to National TB Points (NTPs) – were in 12 countries. They are India (31 per cent of the global total); South Africa; Bangladesh; Pakistan; Indonesia; China, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); Mozambique; Nigeria; Ethiopia; the Philippines and Myanmar.

According to WHO Director of the Global TB Programme, Mario Raviglione, “Quality TB care for millions worldwide has driven down TB deaths. But far too many people are still missing out on such care and are suffering as a result. They are not diagnosed, or not treated, or information on the quality of care they received is unknown.”

WHO estimates Global tuberculosis report for this year that the three million people who are currently undiagnosed by health systems account for one third of all those falling ill with TB yearly.

According to the report, reaching the missed cases is among the five priority actions to accelerate progress towards 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Other areas include: addressing multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) as a public health crisis; accelerating the response to TB/HIV; increasing financing to close all resource gaps and ensuring rapid adoption of innovations.

The report said the response to testing and treating all those affected by multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is inadequate. WHO estimated that 450,000 fell ill with MDR-TB in 2012 alone, with China, India and Russia carrying the highest burden of the disease.

Other key findings of the report point out that by 2012, TB mortality rate had been reduced by 45 per cent since 1990, making the MDG target to reduce deaths by 50 per cent by 2015 achievable.

“The Global TB Report highlights the very big gains the global community has made in the fight against tuberculosis,” said Head of the Strategy, Investment and Impact Division of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Osamu Kunii.

He said: “We are now at a crucial moment where we cannot afford to let these gains go into reverse. We need the commitment of the international community to address a significant funding gap to fight this disease.”

Today, two-thirds of international donor financing for TB is provided by the Global Fund. By July this year, Global Fund financing has cumulatively supported detection and treatment of 11 million smear-positive cases of TB, up from 9.7 million at the end of 2012. The number of people treated for multi-drug-resistant TB grew to 88,000 from 69,000 through Global-Fund supported programmes